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Hieronymous Alloy posted:How complex is roll20 to use? I'm pretty sure I'm the only person in my group who even uses discord (I had to explain it to our GM as "the new, fancier IRC.") Most of our group . . if they weren't using D&D beyond to manage their character sheets I'm pretty sure they wouldn't really even have a handle on character building. Our bard routinely forgets to add his dexterity & proficiency bonus to his rapier's attack roll. It's really not too bad, and it can be as automated as you like. At it's most basic, you just log on and then command line everything (i.e. /roll d20+3). But it's worth setting up characters that have built-in macros, so you can just do stuff like click "Initiative" and it'll roll it and include it in the DM's initiative table, or click "Fireball" and it rolls all the damage and displays the spell text. My suggestion is to start slow: Make a character sheet and a token for every player, add a few monsters from the Roll20 Compendium, and do a little solo session to see what you like. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91DNIXqG4Zw
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Mar 14, 2020 17:44
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change my name posted:Great, now I have to learn how to DM on roll20 too I just load maps in Inkscape, add a layer for player/monster tokens, and share my screen in hangouts.
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Mar 14, 2020 17:47
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My Roll 20 tip: find the default token settings for your campaign and set them to show nameplates and make the nameplates visible to the players. Otherwise you'll have to set them individually every time you want the players to see a label.
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Mar 14, 2020 18:01
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Nephzinho posted:I just load maps in Inkscape, add a layer for player/monster tokens, and share my screen in hangouts. We might all use Zoom, and I know you can screenshare so maybe I'll do this. I trust my IRL group not to fudge their dice rolls.
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Mar 14, 2020 18:06
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change my name posted:We might all use Zoom, and I know you can screenshare so maybe I'll do this. I trust my IRL group not to fudge their dice rolls. Zoom would work fine if you all have the client, I just assume everyone can use hangouts. People who want to roll can roll and announce, otherwise we have a noise channel on our slack with a dicebot.
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Mar 14, 2020 18:20
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Does anyone here use Foundry VTT? It looks cool, but I haven't had a chance to play with it and see how it feels to use.
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Mar 14, 2020 18:31
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I guess I'm in the minority but I like Fantasy Grounds a lot more than Roll20 because it seems focused more on 5th edition, and all the official AL modules have FG mods. Maybe I could go back and look at Roll20 again e: I guess I should say I feel like R20 is just a digital playmat and minis, where FG is a complete way to play D&D over the internet, especially when using published adventures. Syrinxx fucked around with this message at 19:47 on Mar 14, 2020 |
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Mar 14, 2020 19:23
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Kaal posted:It's really not too bad, and it can be as automated as you like. At it's most basic, you just log on and then command line everything (i.e. /roll d20+3). But it's worth setting up characters that have built-in macros, so you can just do stuff like click "Initiative" and it'll roll it and include it in the DM's initiative table, or click "Fireball" and it rolls all the damage and displays the spell text. My suggestion is to start slow: Make a character sheet and a token for every player, add a few monsters from the Roll20 Compendium, and do a little solo session to see what you like. The thing I sort of hate about Roll20 - and granted it's a powerful tool that does a lot of good stuff - is how much prep time it really requires. You need to build your own playlists, you need to upload most of your own minis, you need to make sure your sheets are set up properly, that your maps are prepared (and they aren't simple to make) - it's not hard but it requires a level of preptime I just don't have in addition to the time I spend planning game. The good news is that like Kaal says you really can just use it as a virtual playmat and not worry about that stuff, which is generally how I recommend using it. I have a couple hours a week, max, to write game, build monster sheets, manage downtimes, etc, and I just don't have the extra 3-5 hours required to build the backend stuff for roll20. Thankfully I don't have to.
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Mar 14, 2020 20:18
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I used Roll20 last week for the first time on the thread's recommendation and did zero prep. It has a learning curve and I'm still figuring out how to let the players move their own characters around, the drawing tools seem pretty primitive and I haven't figured out how to import maps into it yet. Having done 1 quick run through the tutorial I think I'm just scratching the surface of what it can do. But it seems to serve, unless you want something shinier than the online equivalent of scribbling on a battlemat.
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Mar 14, 2020 20:24
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Mendrian posted:The thing I sort of hate about Roll20 - and granted it's a powerful tool that does a lot of good stuff - is how much prep time it really requires. You need to build your own playlists, you need to upload most of your own minis, you need to make sure your sheets are set up properly, that your maps are prepared (and they aren't simple to make) - it's not hard but it requires a level of preptime I just don't have in addition to the time I spend planning game. Honestly, you can get away without too much prep if you just get the players to fill out their sheets (that video is 3 years old and there's been some improvements since), because that's the largest piece of slowdown, in my experience. You can just slap down a generic map (just a forest or desert or whatever background and draw some lines for terrain and go
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Mar 14, 2020 20:28
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Also Roll20 is running like poo poo right now and I can't actually do anything on it at the moment, I'm assuming they're under super heavy load as everyone tries to do the same thing I am.
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Mar 14, 2020 20:38
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Yeah we bought the Avernus module to move to roll20 for our game tomorrow but it's super slammed so I'm thinking we might not even get to, lol
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Mar 14, 2020 20:59
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I've used pretty much every virtual tabletop out there and Fantasy Grounds has been by far the best. Never DMed with it though. Roll20 works fine for the basics but I found once we were past the basic character macros state the more I used it the more I found the advanced features lacking.
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Mar 14, 2020 21:05
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Hard enough to gather people without this corona BS.
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Mar 15, 2020 21:21
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Commissioned character art for my now-online game, time to lean all the gently caress in
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Mar 15, 2020 21:26
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The one insanely irritating thing about roll20 is the money and complication involved (as DM) in rolling initiative for more than one enemy NPC at a time. So silly.
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Mar 16, 2020 10:02
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I decided to go for fantasy grounds as our group decided to not meet up IRL atm because of the corona thing. I have tried roll20 and actually I am pretty mad I spent money on some landscape and token stuff.
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Mar 16, 2020 10:38
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The downside with FG is that it has quite a bit of expense to it. You need the licenses on top of buying the program after all. My group has come to miss simple features such as drawing on the board, which while available is only in black and with no way to adjust the thickness of what is drawn/written. You'll also have to be careful about text documents within the program, likely the notes. We kept running into a terrible issue where all of the chat interactions were delayed/lagging. Rolls, typed text (which is really bad with a DM that mainly handles things via text). The culprit was the above, as our resident notekeeper had written what was downright a books worth of our journey and having it open all the time caused the issue.
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Mar 16, 2020 10:56
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Filboid Studge posted:The one insanely irritating thing about roll20 is the money and complication involved (as DM) in rolling initiative for more than one enemy NPC at a time. So silly. All I have to do is click the token on the map, then bring up the NPC character sheet and click initiative. I keep that sheet on the screen and use it multiple times for each duplicate enemy (I.e 8 Great Spiders), then minimize it rather than closing it entirely to keep it close at hand throughout the fight.
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Mar 16, 2020 15:03
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Kaal posted:All I have to do is click the token on the map, then bring up the NPC character sheet and click initiative. I keep that sheet on the screen and use it multiple times for each duplicate enemy (I.e 8 Great Spiders), then minimize it rather than closing it entirely to keep it close at hand throughout the fight. Or, just make a 1-line unit macro and set it as a default token action. Don't even need to open sheets. Click token->Click Button.
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Mar 16, 2020 15:07
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I plan to try fantasy grounds once the unity client comes out
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Mar 16, 2020 15:19
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Toshimo posted:Or, just make a 1-line unit macro and set it as a default token action. Don't even need to open sheets. Click token->Click Button. Oh totally, Roll20 supports a fairly full macro system for those that prefer using that to the sheets. I like using the sheets and only occasionally using command line, and since I tend to have plenty of screen space it's no issue for me to have a map, a couple sheets, and a camera open all the time.
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Mar 16, 2020 15:33
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So, still deciding between moving my game to either Roll20 or Fantasy grounds. It looks like Fantasy grounds is a lot slicker and easier to use, but for me to run Avernus and people to be able to make their characters, I'm looking at $150-$200 for Ultimate, rulebooks, and the module, even with it being on sale now, as it doesn't support using it as "just a map" very well? I guess using it as just a map, if possible, would be $75 for ultimate on sale + $50 for the module? Roll20 is a lot more barebones but I should be able to run the game for just $50 for the module, with people using their paper character sheets? Is the subscription needed, or worth it?
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Mar 17, 2020 05:48
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Butt Discussin posted:Roll20 is a lot more barebones but I should be able to run the game for just $50 for the module, with people using their paper character sheets? Is the subscription needed, or worth it? Why would you use paper sheets with R20 instead of just making your characters in-game, if that's what you'd do with FG? Subscription shouldn't be necessary, but it does make things easier as the DM.
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Mar 17, 2020 05:56
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There's my confusion - does each player have to buy a Player's handbook and/or any splat books if they want their in-game character to have any of those options, for either platform? What I read googling around made it seem like they did, making that a hard sell to my group. I don't mind dropping some money myself, but I don't want to have to ask them to.
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Mar 17, 2020 05:58
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Butt Discussin posted:There's my confusion - does each player have to buy a Player's handbook and/or any splat books if they want their in-game character to have any of those options, for either platform? What I read googling around made it seem like they did, making that a hard sell to my group. I don't mind dropping some money myself, but I don't want to have to ask them to. If you want full drag-and-drop for R20, either the DM has to have the book, or you do. As a DM, you can just share the book out with the players in your game. If your players are find just copy/pasting stuff in, you don't even need that much. I think there's also a D&D Beyond character importer, but that might need the DM to have an API subscription. I don't recall exactly.
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Mar 17, 2020 06:01
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Butt Discussin posted:There's my confusion - does each player have to buy a Player's handbook and/or any splat books if they want their in-game character to have any of those options, for either platform? What I read googling around made it seem like they did, making that a hard sell to my group. I don't mind dropping some money myself, but I don't want to have to ask them to. for FG only the DM needs anything paid
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Mar 17, 2020 06:09
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As a DM on roll20 I still used actual books and paper notes. I still made all my rolls with actual dice. The worst part was making maps. Felt like it took forever, and finding the perfect backdrops to set stuff up look a large chunk of time. It has been a long time since I've used it, and D&D online has exploded since then so I'm sure there are a million more resources now, so never feel you need to dump money into roll20 to get anywhere.
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Mar 17, 2020 07:07
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Flipping (well, it's online so...) the new Wildemount book. Some neat stuff. Echo Knight is a cool concept, though the amount of power the two Wizard subclasses get is a little obscene (particularly access to the new spells). Kinda sad there's only the three though. For races, it's mostly stuff we've seen before although there are some options spread across different books condensed into this one plus it's using the cool and good Eberron Orc. Got two new sub-options for Dragonborn. Looks like they also went a bit more in-depth with the "This is your life" character creation introduced in Xanathar's. While it does flavor things towards the setting, it also goes further than Xanathar's version by giving players things based on rolls to start off with. There's of course a bit of a bestiary for creatures native to the setting and same with magical items, a lot going into the world building including a Gazetteer which includes adventure hooks for the four tiers of play. Plus four full on adventures.
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Mar 17, 2020 09:29
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Arthil posted:the amount of power the two Wizard subclasses get is a little obscene (particularly access to the new spells) What an unexpected choice
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Mar 17, 2020 10:39
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Butt Discussin posted:There's my confusion - does each player have to buy a Player's handbook and/or any splat books if they want their in-game character to have any of those options, for either platform? What I read googling around made it seem like they did, making that a hard sell to my group. I don't mind dropping some money myself, but I don't want to have to ask them to. I don't know anything about Fantasy Grounds, but in Roll20 the DM is able to extend access from their purchases to their players. Also, quite a bit of the PHB is incorporated into the Roll20 5e compendium, so you and your players should be able to make characters and play them pretty easily. You might need to copy/paste in some abilities here and there, but I've never felt the need to subscribe to anything on Roll20, or write out a bunch of macros. The basic kit is already pretty comprehensive. Athanatos posted:As a DM on roll20 I still used actual books and paper notes. I still made all my rolls with actual dice. Making maps can indeed take up a lot of time, but I've found that there are a ton of player-made maps out there on the internet waiting to be repurposed. I just search around on Google Image for a bit, then import a map and perform a grid alignment to scale it correctly.
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Mar 17, 2020 15:23
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that Wildemount setting book sure has a ton of stuff in it.
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Mar 17, 2020 15:55
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As a Roll20 DM, I've been rolling free just fine. I make sure my players have good free access to the books, but the most important things player-side is that they have their character sheets set to the right system and filled out properly. As stated prior, the compendium has most PHB rules already available, though their subclasses are limited. As I need a type of map I just search on google and upload something that works, if I'm not already using a book with maps included (at which point I can either find those specific maps on google or I can screenshot them from the book pdf).
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Mar 17, 2020 15:59
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Sounds good, sounds like I can buy the module to be able to use the maps then run it without further difficulty or expense, or even draw my own maps and run the game free. I’ll try it out, thanks all.
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Mar 17, 2020 16:20
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Roll20 and Discord is how my group does it, and there's a rather nice browser extension that makes DMing a bit easier, if you're willing to add more to the learning curve: https://ssstormy.github.io/roll20-enhancement-suite/ Mass rolling saves/initiatives, update tokens across maps, loading images and tokens from URLs, and a much better library UI for mapping are the ones that get the most use from me.
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Mar 17, 2020 18:03
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Are there any good guides on how to set up roll20 from a player perspective? I have my character made, but would like to know what other tips and tricks for playing there are. I know macros exist, but that's about it.
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Mar 17, 2020 18:13
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Yikes, never thought about this... that reduction is effectively permanent at most tiers? https://twitter.com/jeremyecrawford/status/1239958836250734594?s=21
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Mar 17, 2020 18:21
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I feel like the solution there is to revivify, then stabilize the target, at which point it has 0HP but is not dying, merely unconscious. Then they take a long rest while unconscious, at which point their HP max recovers.
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Mar 17, 2020 18:50
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Athanatos posted:As a DM on roll20 I still used actual books and paper notes. I still made all my rolls with actual dice. I run two campaigns on Roll20 right now, and I use actual books, a notebook, and real dice to do all the stuff on my end. My players use paper or form fillable pdf character sheets and roll dice with macros. For maps, I just take photos of my hand drawn maps or those from the books and turn on the fog of war option and reveal areas as PCs discover them.
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Mar 17, 2020 19:45
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:I feel like the solution there is to revivify, then stabilize the target, at which point it has 0HP but is not dying, merely unconscious. Then they take a long rest while unconscious, at which point their HP max recovers. Under RAW im pretty sure you have to be conscious to get the benefit of any rest.
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Mar 17, 2020 20:03
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